Van Heerden is the executive director of the Fair Labor
Association.
By Auret van Heerden
On Jan. 10, 2002, the University of California Office of the
President made an important and judicious decision. The
UCOP agreed to affiliate with the Fair Labor Association, and join
over 160 other universities and colleges in a collective effort to
improve working conditions in factories across the globe.
The FLA is a non-profit organization established to protect the
rights of workers across the globe. It is the product of years
of hard work by university and college, company and
non-governmental organization representatives to form a
comprehensive code of conduct and monitoring system. The FLA
works with all agents in the production of goods to ensure that
certain standards are kept. The UC has recognized this
cooperative commitment and affiliated itself with the FLA in order
to better complement its own code of conduct.
As UCOP spokesperson Mary Spletter stated, “(The UC) has a
strong code of conduct that demonstrates the university’s
concern for humane working conditions. But we need an equally
strong monitoring and enforcement system” (“Companies
that make UC’s products to face scrutiny,” News, Jan.
16).Â
This is where the FLA can make a difference.
Recently, our system of cooperation proved fruitful in the
BJ&B facility in the Dominican Republic. Utilizing our
complaint system, which can be used by any third party, FLA
Participating Companies Adidas, Nike and Reebok led the effort to
resolve a labor dispute at this facility when twenty some workers
were dismissed for signing a union petition.
Within 24 hours of receiving this complaint, FLA PC compliance
staffs were on location and conducted unannounced factory visits,
off-site interviews with workers and a review of facility payroll,
personnel and timecard records. An agreement between facility
management representatives and the union representing the dismissed
workers was signed within days of the complaint, and the document
provided for the reinstatement of the workers, back wages and
benefits, and a prohibition of further anti-union activities, among
other beneficial provisions. Additionally, we contacted the local
labor ministry to ensure that the union’s pending application
for recognition would be handled expeditiously.
This is just an example of the possibilities that can be
achieved through the FLA and the cooperative approach we have taken
to labor rights issues. Of course, any burgeoning effort has
issues of contention. However, those who oppose this
collective effort ““ like Gillian Claycomb and Arlen
Benjamin-Gomez who wrote an article on behalf of the United
Students Against Sweatshops in last week’s Daily Bruin
(“UCOP becomes part of un-Fair Labor Association, Viewpoint,
Jan. 30) ““ are driven by unwarranted skepticism and
misinformation that damages not only our efforts, but also the
efforts of all those who aim to improve labor conditions.
Our system of monitoring requires rigorous compliance
standards. Affiliated companies must implement their own
system of internal monitoring and submit all of their facilities to
possible independent external monitoring by our accredited
monitors.Â
Companies do not choose which of their factories are audited and
cannot select monitors for visits with whom they have conflicts of
interest. All of a company’s factories are subject to
our third party complaint system and other methods of confidential
compliance reporting.
The FLA does not certify companies as “sweat-free”
as many may believe. We will be analyzing and reporting
publicly on the compliance records of our participating companies
every year. At some point in the future we will consider what
form of recognition should be given to companies which achieve
solid compliance records, but it is important to note that our goal
here is to protect workers, not whitewash the image of
companies.
Improving factory working conditions on a global-scale is a
daunting task. We realize the need for open communication
between all agents in this process and are committed to
facilitating an open dialogue. This dialogue has and will
continue to improve our organization and our system of
monitoring.
The UC has made the right decision and I look forward to working
closely with them in our efforts.